In typical telecommunications systems, voice calls and data are transmitted by carriers from one network to another network. Networks for transmitting voice calls include packet-switched networks transmitting calls using VoIP, circuit-switched networks like the public switched telephone network (PSTN), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, and the like. Recently, VOP networks are becoming more widely deployed.
As VOP services expand to provide users with narrow band voice telephony over a broadband network connection to, for example, public networks such as the PSTN, the Internet or private networks using the Internet Protocol (IP), the need for enhanced services is increasing. VoIP telephony, by way of VOP networks, is being deployed in homes and in enterprises to reduce the system and service costs and to improve system capabilities. Improving the user experience and enabling new features and classes of applications with VoIP compliant systems has not been possible with traditional circuit-switched PSTN based telephony systems. The operation of the PSTN has not traditionally been packet oriented for a variety of reasons including the inability to overcome voice band fidelity issues associated with packet latency and the like. Since voice data is highly correlated, it is inherently intolerant to packet delay or reordering. Also, the use of circuit switching is, generally speaking, an inefficient use of communication resources and obviates the inherent healing properties and fault tolerance of packet networks.
With improvements in the transport speed of the packet networks, due in large measure to the use of broadband fiber and other high speed physical layer media in the subscriber loop, packet based services for critical real-time data such as voice data is now a reality. However, residential services for packet based voice systems still lag behind those typically provided in the PSTN. Since the present user experience associated with a VOP or VoIP telephone is typically indistinguishable from the standard PSTN user experience and, in some cases less feature-rich, additional features provided to users in the VOP environment may be required to make the use of VOP or VoIP telephones a more compelling choice for home consumers and, to some extent, enterprises.
Enterprises have traditionally benefited from the ability of sophisticated private branch exchange (PBX) systems to provide enhanced services. The deployment of VoIP phone systems within the enterprise typically involves an IP PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange) including IP phones, which have a large display screen and keypad with many function keys. The typical IP phone in the IP PBX environment provides the enterprise user with ease-of-use of traditional features and the ability to add a new class of applications and new features that were not available with traditional analog telephones.
However, for home users the experience of using an IP phone coupled to a VOP network has been somewhat limited to services and features currently available from a traditional analog phone connected to the PSTN. The limitations are primarily attributable to the physical constraints posed by the requirement to use the standard RJ11 2-wire analog interface and the ability to translate the VOP features on to the analog telephone. Simply put, the typical analog telephone or telephony device is not equipped to accommodate the display of rich data and feature content which is available through the packet network to which it is attached. Although some services have been provided to residential users over the PSTN, for example, voice mailboxes, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, distinctive ringing, Caller ID services, and the like, enhanced services are more difficult to provide to conventional devices or to devices coupled over conventional analog connections.
Some systems such as the system described in Attorney Docket No. TI-39017, have attempted to provide enhanced service information over, for example, a conventional Caller ID display. Such a solution however can cause cluttering of the Caller ID display with non-Caller ID data and is not equipped to provide additional features through the limited Caller ID messaging format.